Chelsea's season is finally over. The Blues failed to reach the 50-point mark in the Premier League for the first time in the club's history as they drew 1-1 against Newcastle on the final day of the 2022/23 campaign.
Frank Lampard ends his stint as caretaker boss with just one win in 11 games - emphasising the task facing incoming manager Mauricio Pochettino. football.london understands that the Argentine has agreed a deal to join Chelsea after positive discussions with Todd Boehly over the past two months.
It was a dismal season capped by a poor display against Newcastle on Sunday afternoon as the away fans celebrated qualifying for the Champions League all game - something the Blues fans are used to doing every year. The atmosphere at Stamford Bridge highlighted the contrast between the two sides' performances this term - whilst the game itself saw the points be shared after Anthony Gordon's strike was cancelled out by a Kieran Trippier own goal.
READ MORE: What Frank Lampard and Cesar Azpilicueta did vs Newcastle with three Chelsea transfer hints made
football.london has taken a look at how the national media reacted to Chelsea's 1-1 draw against the Magpies ahead of Pochettino's arrival at Stamford Bridge.
The curtain fell on Frank Lampard’s second spell as Chelsea’s head coach as a host of players said farewell to the Stamford Bridge crowd on an afternoon when Champions League bound Newcastle United went through the motions.
Under a warm late afternoon sun Anthony Gordon had given the visitors a ninth-minute lead only for Kieran Trippier to concede an unfortunate own goal by bundling the ball into his own net after 27. In pursuit of a winner, both teams went on to create a number of half chances but it ended level as Newcastle toasted a campaign that delivered beyond all expectations and Chelsea said good riddance to a dismal nine months.
Beyond anything else this was a day of goodbyes. Cesar Azpilicueta, who has a year left on his contract but expected to move on after a decade at the club, saluted the Chelsea supporters who raised a big flag calling him a legend before kick-off, while another banner moved across the opposite side of Stamford Bridge toasting the departing Lampard, who had his name chanted on a number of occasions despite a desperate spell in interim charge.
All this game was missing come the end were the parasols and sun loungers. It is a bucket and spade that incoming Chelsea boss Mauricio Pochettino needs, such is the depth of his rebuild.
The Argentine, who signed a three-year deal on Sunday, will inherit a bloated and imbalanced squad, high on value but low on self-worth. His first job will be to dig a hole big enough to dump those he does not want. He cannot arrive with a clean slate for all, this season has been far too grubby for fresh starts.
On a scorching final day in West London, another game passed without a home victory. Their last was against Leeds in early March.
Frank Lampard came in to what felt like a no-lose situation the following month, but leaves having seen his caretaker stint descend into a defeat - eight of them in 11 matches, in fact. His team have shown little fight, but the club legend used this farewell to land a few blows of his own.
The success of Chelsea's visitors should not be lost on American owner Todd Boehly. Newcastle have replaced the Blues in the Champions League because of brilliant recruitment on and off the field - boss Eddie Howe has been transformational. Boehly, by contrast, has made an ugly mess of spending his pretty green. Chelsea, in 12th, have finished in the bottom half for the first time in 27 years.
While the players of Newcastle stood in front of the noisy travelling supporters and celebrated qualifying for the Champions League for the first time in two decades, their counterparts in blue wandered sheepishly around the Stamford Bridge pitch and wondered what comes next after the season from hell finally came to an end.
The immediate answer was a fond farewell to Frank Lampard after his stint as caretaker with a lively 1-1 draw with Newcastle. In terms of the wider picture, though, Chelsea are in for a long rebuild. They have finished in the bottom half for the first time since 1996 and, while they have convinced Mauricio Pochettino to take over, the reality for Chelsea’s owners, Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital, is they will have little to celebrate when they mark the first anniversary of their takeover tomorrow.
Ultimately it has been an exhibition in how not to run a football club. A spend of close to £600m on signings has achieved nothing and Boehly, who stayed away from this one, will know the months ahead could be long, painful and costly. A lot of players need moving on, if only to make Pochettino's life easier, and perhaps Clearlake’s founders, Behdad Eghbali and José Feliciano, will have a better idea of who should go after turning up to watch yet another wasteful performance from Chelsea in front of goal.
There was something fitting about Chelsea’s campaign ending with João Félix and Christian Pulisic missing glaring opportunities in added time. Wastefulness has been the theme.
Kai Havertz is simply not equipped to lead the line for a top side and there was no better illustration of why Chelsea have scored at a rate of a goal a game in the league this season when their dud of a No 9, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, mooched down the touchline a few minutes before this game began and sat behind the bench after once again failing to make the match-day squad.
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